Tonal-based languages such as, e.g., Mandarin, Min, Taiwanese, and Cantonese, include expressions associated with different meanings. The meaning of a particular word may change based, at least in part, on the tone with which the expression is spoken. In a speech recognition system, the tone may be recognized by a numerical identifier, where, for example, the numeral “1” indicates a high tone, the numeral “2” indicates a high/rising tone, the numeral “3” indicates a low/dipping tone, and the numeral “4” indicates a high/falling tone. For instance, the expression “ma1” may be the Mandarin equivalent of the English word “mother,” whereas “ma3” may be the Mandarin equivalent of the word “horse”.
Tonal-based languages also include expressions that, when misarticulated, sound substantially the same. An example of such an expression is the Mandarin equivalent of the English words “yes” and “no”. More specifically, the Mandarin equivalent of the English word “yes” is “Shi4”, whereas the Mandarin equivalent of the English word “no” is “Bu2 Shi4”. In some cases, regarding the Mandarin equivalent of the word “no”, the “Bu2” preceding “Shi4” may be misarticulated and/or unheard by, e.g., a speech recognition system, if the expression is spoken too quickly and/or with an improper tone. In such cases, the speech recognition system may construe the expression as simply “Shi4” (the Mandarin equivalent of “yes”), when the speaker really said “Bu2 Shi4” (the Mandarin equivalent of “no”).